This is not available for paper counterpart licences issued in Northern Ireland and there is a paper method to ontain the information but that involves a £5 fee which the online method does not.

The online record does not include historical (expired) points or information.

We tried it today and it was extremely slow and problematic and took an number of failed attempts.

Remember your driving licence number is 16 digits long (ignore the last 2 numbers after the space in pint 5. of your photo driving licence if that is where you are getting your driving licence number from.

On our first attempt we had lots of problems today accessing the service. First we had a web error "405 Not Allowed". The next message saiad there was a page information error and the third attempt a web error meesage we had was a "500 internal server error" message.

Infact we gave up after double and triple checking the information we were entering and ofter 5 failed attempts to access the service online. Not a great start for this new online service!

No doubt some of the teething problems many observers are concerned about. Many uers are going to find that very frustrating especially a peak times as the Government does not have a good track record with online services.

This new system is likely to make life difficult for drivers until everyone is aware of the change and any teething problems have been overcome.

It certainly means you will have to think ahead when wanting to hire a vehicle for instance as hire companies will need a code from you that expires after 72 Hours to access your driving record online. That is a short time window so be prepared!

The digital drive has been the tax disk being abolised during 2014 and the UK Governement says that abolishing the paper counterpart driving licence will save millions of pounds.

Video Update from DVLA About the Paperless Counterpart Driving Licence

Although the DVLA state the paper counterpart no longer has any legal status from Monday 8th June and it can be destroyed some driving agencies including the AA are urging drivers to hang on to the paperless counterpart driving licence as there are likely to be teething problems as many people are completely unaware of this latest DVLA change.

This probably seems wise.

Likely problems include travel and car hire abroad and in the UK and the fact that so few people appear to be aware of this latest change.

Car hire companies often ask for the paper counterpart driving licence which features points incurred for driving offences.

IMPORTANT: Paper driving licences issued before the photocard was introduced in 1998 will remain valid and should not be destroyed. (Source .Gov website 8th June 2015).

Driving Penalty Points & Endorements

From today Monday 8 June 2015 new penalty points i.e. endorsements for driving offenses will only be recorded electronically.

Thye will no longer be printed or written on either photocard licences or paper driving licences.

From 8 June 2015 if you commit an offence you will still have to pay any applicable fine and submit your licence to the court however:-

For photocard licences, the court will retain the paper counterpart and only return the photocard to you.

For paper licences, the court will return it to you but they won’t have written or printed the offence details on it.

This means that from 8 June 2015 neither the photocard driving licence nor the paper licence will provide an accurate account of any driving endorsements you may have.

Under the new system this information will instead be held on DVLA’s driver electronic record, and can be viewed online, by phone or post.

Vehicle Hire & Other Agencies

Car Hire and other vehicle hire companies or organisations that regularly check the counterpart for entitlements or endorsements can use the Check Driving Licence Service to check the licence using the code provided by the driver.

You can use this service to check someone’s driving licence information, eg the vehicles they can drive or any penalty points or disqualifications.

You’ll need:

the last 8 characters of their driving licence number a check code from the driver

You must use the code within 72 hours. You can only use the code once after that you will have to get another code to do another check on that driver.

With the driver’s consent these companies can view the details on a driving licence, eg the vehicle categories the driver is entitled to drive and any endorsements or penalty points they currently have.

The service also gives the option to print or save a copy of the information.

Organisations can make a check by phone if they don’t have a check code to use with the online service. However they will need to ask the driver they are doing the check on to call DVLA on 0300 790 6801 and leave permission for the check to be done.

Thye can then call DVLA on 0906 139 3837 (calls cost 51p per minute) to check the driver’s details after they’ve given their permission.

Many companies are likely to pass this additional cost of to those hiring a vehicle for instance.

Taking your theory or driving test

From 8 June 2015, you won’t need to take your paper counterpart with you when you go for your theory or driving test.

You must still take your photocard, or your old-style paper licence otherwise your test will be cancelled and you’ll have to pay again if you don’t.